


Unbroken

by Ciircee



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Brothers, Canon Compliant, Feels, Gen, Missing Scene, guest appearance by Clint Barton
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-11
Updated: 2013-02-11
Packaged: 2017-11-28 23:37:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/680162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ciircee/pseuds/Ciircee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes things break.  Sometimes they get shattered, destroyed, wrecked.  </p>
<p>Sometimes they don't or can't or won't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unbroken

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written in ages and I'm not even sure what the hell this is besides FEELS.
> 
> _Very_ vaguely related to [You should see (the other guy)](http://archiveofourown.org/works/473591).

**Unbroken**

"Did you miss me, brother?" he asks softly. "When you thought me gone forever, did you miss me?" He touches the glass between them and then presses his hand to it fully. "Did you grieve? Did you mourn?"

His brother doesn't answer him, of course. He can't: behind the glass Loki is muzzled. He is almost glad of it; he is afraid of what his brother might say.

Thor watches his brother, dark and beautiful and still unbowed. "I am sorry," he says. He means it. 

Loki's eyes are expressive. 

"Brother, I am," he sighs. "Do not doubt my sincerity. I would not have you muzzled."

An eye blink should not say so very much or be so very sarcastic.

His heart lurches. "Can you blame them? Loki, look at what you have done! Do you not see what you have cost them? I do not mean the initiative only, but the whole of Midgard. What would you have them do?" They would have his brother's life if they could but he cannot allow it. Will not. He will do anything but, including this. "This is what is, brother. This is what protects you now." 

Loki's eyes roll ever so faintly.

"I am taking you home," and there he will un-muzzle him and drag his brother back from this dark place "I am returning the Tesseract to our father." 

Loki's eyes are hot on him, burn into him.

He could argue, he could shout, but his brother is yet beyond reason. "To Odin, then."

Disdain, disdain. Such rotting, blighting, _sneering_ disgust.

He cannot stand it and yet he must endure it. As Loki must, as Loki is now. "I could shatter this cage, brother," he says. Mjolnir is far from him and yet always in his hand. If he would break these bars, it will fly to him. 

Anger rages across the visible part of Loki's face. Loki knows he will not. His brother knows him so well. Well enough to prey upon him, to use him, to destroy him. 

But Thor knows his brother, too. How to break him. Like Mjolnir, it is both far from him and always at hand. "I will not break this trust," he tells Loki. He puts his hand to the glass, palm open and fingers spread. "Not theirs in me, nor mine in you." 

Loki's look is both blank and baleful. It is mocking and that is galling.

"You told me to never doubt, brother, and I do not." His hand is a fist before he knows it. "I do not doubt, do you hear me, brother!" he shouts, that fist falling on the glass with the force of his hammer. "Do you?"

"Yes."

Thor freezes. Behind the wall, so does his brother. Thor pushes away his own embarrassment at being caught out like this to look to the voice that has answered him. 

Clint Barton is sitting above the cage, his bow in hand. He is not looking at Thor and, in his cage, Loki is not looking at Barton. "Yes," he says again and Thor sees the arrow. "Yes, he missed you. Yes, he mourned. He _grieved_." He smiles with no humor and no warmth, as empty as Loki once made him. 

"You do not tell me this for myself," Thor guesses heavily.

Loki whips away from the glass, stalks as far off as he can manage. 

"Nope," Barton says, calm and implacable. "It shames him."

Thor closes his eyes. He doesn't want this, this answer, his brother's shame, the glass wall thicker than it looks, a muzzle to protect them both. 

"And because it's true," says Barton. Thor looks at him and finally Clint Barton looks away from Loki and his eyes are indeed that of a hawk, seeing far and much. What he sees in Thor must be enough because the bow folds even as he readies another arrow. "It's why he's not dead right now. There's something in him that hasn't been killed yet, even though he's tried his damnedest." 

"Enough," Thor says, a sigh. "Enough." He thinks of his mother, of her stories, how she always ended with 'and would you know more?' her voice like laughter as her sons clamored for more, yes, and more and ever longer more. He does not want to hear any more of what Barton has to say, how his brother despises and despairs in his love. He should have listened better in bygone days. It would have spared him the howling echo in his ears now. 

When he opens his eyes again he and his brother are alone.

Loki is staring at him, haunted and hunted and as feral as any dire wolf. Any reach to him will result in a hand snapped off, Thor knows. He is unwelcomed, unwanted, perhaps even felt unneeded. If he had his words, Loki would warn him off, would fight Thor with all that he is, all his tricks and talents. His brother is a terrible battle to be fought at a terrible cost. Loki is loss, is lost. Thor knows it like a prophecy. 

Yet he was raised to fight, to battle, to win. He touches the glass again. Loki's stare is acid, is darkness and sinking places. Thor keeps his hand where it is. "It is not yet time for the heavens to be stripped of their bright stars, my brother." 

Until it is such a time, Thor will fight what battles will come with what weapons he has. He understands now that he was raised to bring peace. To build strong the crumbled, ruined places under his protection. 

He sits down and puts his weight against the glass, knowing his brother will feel it somewhere.


End file.
